Sports

Medical volunteers sought for Alberta Summer Games

A team of 100 medical volunteers are needed to help athletes, as well as coaches and officials during the 2018 Alberta Summer Games.

The Games, being co-hosted by the City of Grande Prairie and County of Grande Prairie, will feature 13 different sports on July 19-22 and more than 2,500 athletes ages 11-17.

Della Wrzosek, the Games’ Director of Medical, and local organizers, are seeking 80 more medical volunteers to assist during the Games.

“Our job as the medical team for the Games is actually to provide care and prevention of athletic injuries and illness through establishing a polyclinic where athletes who have sustained an injury can come and be treated,” explained Wrzosek, who works as a nurse practitioner at the Primary Care Network pain clinic in Grande Prairie.

“We also have to provide coverage on-site at the different sport venues for on-site treatment of injury and to facilitate any transfer to any higher level of care if needed.”

Wrzosek said the more volunteers there are for the Games, the shorter the shifts will be. Ideally, if there’s enough volunteers their shift would be four to six hours on one of the three days.

“(Volunteers needed) includes physicians, nurses, paramedics, physiotherapists, athletic therapists and any variety of first aiders. Right now we have about 20% of that need covered and our biggest gap is actually coming from the physician community at this point. We’ve had a really great response from the other health disciplines, and a great response from some of our non-profit organizations in the community,” said Wrzosek, noting organizations such as Nitehawk Ski Patrol and Technical Search and Rescue will be assisting during the Games.

Because the Games are happening at a variety of venues in the city and county, Wrzosek said the greatest challenge is ensuring there’s enough medical coverage.

“Our Games are going to be spread out quite a bit across the community – Grande Prairie and county – so we need to have coverage at the Crosslink (County Sportsplex) and coverage at (the Eastlink Centre) and coverage at Macklin Field, and then coordinating transportation between those sites. It’s really the number of volunteers that’s the biggest challenge and making sure we have enough skilled and trained people to provide that coverage at such a wide geographic area.”

Wrzosek said volunteers are needed as soon as possible because there is pre-event training and an orientation. An athletic injury management course is being held on April 28 for anyone volunteering, or considering volunteering at the Games. Those interested in taking part in the course are asked to call the Summer Games office at (780) 532-8195. Information will also be posted on the Alberta Summer Games’ Facebook page.

“We really need to get those volunteers signed up now so we can start making our schedules so that we know we have committed people,” said Wrzosek.

“The biggest question people ask is ‘what kinds of things will we have to manage?’ It’s anything from concussions, (strains), heat stroke, lacerations, nose bleeds… those kinds of things. Again, if (volunteers) are concerned about their skill levels, we do offer the injury management course.

“I really believe we have (the volunteers we need) in the community. I’m hoping people will step up sooner rather than later.”